Hollow
by Tiny 1.0
Summary: AUish, Quinn, fresh off of being Lucy has never been happy before. She has never been loved, then she meets Jesse. He makes her feel, and it scares her. She doesn't feel worthy of being loved, can he make her see that she is? While maybe saving her life?
1. Chapter 1

I don't know what it feels like. You know to be happy. I feel things, sure.  
>I used to feel sad, disgusted you name it, I felt it. I mean how could I not? I was fat and ugly. They called me horrible mean names. My nose was all wrong; the most common saying was, 'Lucy Caboosey can't move without squishing someone half to death.'<br>All I could do was look in the mirror and point out what was wrong with me. I felt horrified every time; I could see every zit, every flaw. It wasn't fair.  
>Why couldn't I look like Frannie? She was so pretty. She was all that my parents wanted. All they cared about was themselves. How much money they had, how pretty they were, how well Frannie was portraying the Fabray family name. They didn't pay attention to me though. Not until I got pretty.<br>My dad got a raise from his work right around the time I decided that I needed to stop just sitting around and feeling sorry for my pathetic self and go to the gym.  
>It had been going really well, I had lost about 10 lbs. in the first week and kept losing more. I was beginning to imagine a life where I could be loved and happy. Maybe I could make my parents proud of me.<br>When my dad got his raise it was like a gift from god. I asked him for a nose job. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was asking him he really loved me. Real love is unconditional.  
>I knew I shouldn't have gotten my nose fixed as soon as I woke up from the surgery. I felt worthless. More unloved than I had before, and that was saying something.<br>When I got home I had another 'present'. My mother had gotten me Proactive for my acne. I felt numb on the inside. Hollow. But I plastered a huge smile on my face and hugged her.  
>My family decided that it would be best if I was home schooled after my nose job. You know, so people wouldn't bully me even more. At least, that's what I told myself. I knew they didn't want to put me into another school until I lost all of my extra weight.<br>About a year later I had lost all of my unnecessary fat. Frannie was gone; she finally went if to college and was dating some Christian man. Since my parents no longer had Frannie they decided to try to make me her.  
>I came home after one of my daily runs; you know the ones that kept me from going back to Lucy Caboosey. I knew something was wrong as soon as I put my foot in the front door. My mother was practically jumping from excitement. She had booked me an appointment with our hair dresser; I was going blonde.<br>When my hair was losing its auburn colour my mother kept calling me Lucy. Over and over and over.  
>"How do you like this Lucy?"<br>"You are so lucky to get this chance Lucy!"  
>"I think that blonde hair is going to suit you so much better Lucy!"<br>I had had it.  
>"Mom!" I shouted, "Just call me Quinn, please?"<br>She stopped talking immediately.  
>"Why of course we can!" she beamed.<br>Once I saw her huge smile I felt horrible. Of course she wouldn't mind calling me Quinn. There isn't a horrible nickname made up for that name.  
>About a month later my mother finally told me it was time for me to go back to school. I was going to be a junior in high school; an upperclassman. My mother told me that I had two options of school to go to; we lived in-between school districts. McKinley High or Carmel; my two choices, I had heard good and bad things about both schools. Before I made my decision I decided to check both of them out. I decided that I would go to McKinley High School first. I decided to go by myself so my parents couldn't influence my choice, because I knew they wanted to me to go to McKinley. Not because it was the better school, but because they had an award winning cheerleading team, and they were in the market for a head cheerleader.<p>

I was walking down the long hallways and observing what was going on around me. Since it was orientation for the Juniors I didn't blend in very well. People kept looking at me and pointing, and all I could think was that I had gotten a huge zit and everyone was laughing at me.

Of course I didn't though, because my Proactive took care of that for me. I turned a corner and BAM. Something cold and icy was burning my eyes; I wiped some of the icy concoction out of my eyes and saw that someone had thrown a blue slushy on my new shirt. I just stood there struggling not to cry. I couldn't cry, that was something Lucy would do, but then I was pulled into the girl's bathroom by a tall blonde student.

"Hi! My name is Brittany S. Peirce, but I'm not Brittany Spears and I think that you are really pretty!" the girl smiled.

"Uh... Hi, my name is Luc-Quinn. My name is Quinn." I introduced myself.

"Awesome! Oh well I guess we should get you cleaned off Quinn!"

"That would be nice thank you. Oh, who was that that threw that drink on me?" I asked while she cleaned the drink off of me.

"Oh that? That was Puck. He didn't mean it. That's his way of telling you that you are hot. It sucks though; he kept doing that to me freshman year until Santana went all Lima Heights on him and he stopped."

"Oh." I said, because really? Someone thought I was hot? That was weird… but flattering at the same time.

"Yep," Brittany said, "hey, you look kind of familiar, are we neighbors?"

"I don't know, I moved here last year and have been home schooled ever since. I live between districts; I am considering going to Carmel as well."

"Oh cool! I live in between districts as well but Lord Tubbington told me to come here. So I guess we are neighbors! Lord Tubbington is my cat." She said noticing my confused expression.

"Oh that's very… nice, if Lord Tubbington hadn't told you what to do which school would you have picked?"

"Oh, I think I still would have picked this one because my friends go here, and I get to dance on the Cheerleading team."

Another girl entered the bathroom, she was just as pretty as Brittany was but she seemed a little scary.

"Come on Britts, we got to go, or else Coach Sue's gonna blow her top off."

"Yay! I want to see that!" Brittany exclaimed.

"No Brit, she's going to be really mad."

"Then come on San we got to go! Bye Quinn!"

"Bye Brittany." I said weakly.

The girl named Santana left without a word, but looked at me curiously when I weakly smiled and waved at her.

Well, I don't think I am going to like McKinley so much. Yes I have made a new friend maybe; I thought to myself thinking of Brittany, but I did just get a slushy thrown on me.

Sighing I walked out of the bathroom; right into another slushy. This time it wasn't because someone thought I was hot, it was because someone recognized that I was a loser.

"Welcome to your worst nightmare loser." A big guy said.

"Oooohhh, Karofsky we might not want to write this one off so quickly! She's hot, like Santana and Brittany hot. Let's have some fun with her."

Both guys grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into the janitor's closet. They grabbing my shirt and trying to take it off. I was terrified; completely helpless. I kicked and screamed and tried to bite them but they were too strong. One of them started kissing my neck and the other one held my arms and roared with laughter. I landed a lucky shot and hit the one holding my arm in the groin. He screamed with pain. While the other one, I think Karofsky was his name shoved me against the wall and started yelling, telling me I was just a stupid stupid girl and that he was going to make me pay. Before he could do anything to me though I landed another lucky groin shot and he went down.

I scrambled out of the closet shaking. I ran out of that horrible, evil, good for nothing school and back into my car. I looked at my hand and it was trembling violently; I just wanted to go home. But I knew I couldn't because my parents expected me to go to both McKinley and Carmel today. So I bit my lip to keep from sobbing and drove to Carmel.

When I got there I was so close to crying that I didn't look up at any of the buildings, I just went straight to where they were holding their junior orientation. I looked around at the school and there were no big jocks anywhere that I could see so I relaxed a little bit. I started wandering around the school and went into a medium sized room; it looked like the choir room. I sat on one of the seats and it hit me. I was almost raped in a janitor's closet. I finally burst into tears. This was the very first time I had cried since I started losing weight. I wasn't just crying for what almost happened at McKinley. I cried because no one wanted me. I was just a trophy now, pretty to look at, but really just a waste of space.

I heard a large group of voices heading toward the room that I was in. I looked around, panicked; there was no place to hide. So many of my future classmates where going to see me cry (there was no way I was going back to McKinley). A loud male voice was just outside of the door complaining that summer was almost over. The door handle turned and I was looking at the most handsome male I had ever seen, his hair was wavy and brown, his eyes were gorgeous, and he looked like he had a nice body.

His eyes widened when he saw me there. Who blames him? I looked a mess, my hair was messy and I was crying. He turned around in the doorway and looked at the group of people behind him and spoke to them.

"You guys go back to orientation and preform that number that we have been working on for the other students."

"But Jesse," An annoying female voice whined, "what about you? Aren't you coming?"

"No, I'm staying to work in something that Shelby told me to do." The guy named Jesse said. "Now go! I am the leader if Vocal Adrenaline so you have to do what I say."

The group of people left grumbling. Not one of them had seen me, besides Jesse.

Jesse came closer to me, he looked wary, for a good reason, it's not every day that you walk in on a random girl crying her eyes out in a choir room.

"Hello," he said softly, probably trying not to freak me out. "I'm Jesse St. James, what's your name?"

"Qu-qu Quinn" I hiccupped.

"Well Quinn, why are you crying in a school choir room? Also, why is your shirt blue?"

I didn't want to tell him my sob story so I just shrugged, and winced; my arms really hurt from where those guys grabbed me, but I could power through it. I had had much worse before.

"Quinn, your arms are bruised, what's wrong did someone hurt you? You have…" Something lit up in his eyes. "You just got here from McKinley didn't you? That explained the slushy, but not the bruises, what happened?"

I didn't meet his eyes. I didn't want to tell him. He seemed so nice, he would think badly of me if he found out what happened. I just stopped crying and told him it was nothing. I could see in his eyes that he didn't believe me, but he didn't push me for answers.

"Quinn," he said, "I'm going to take you home okay? You can come back and get your schedule another day."

"Okay," I said shakily. "That would be very nice, thank you. But you really don't have to. I can go home by myself."

"Are you sure? I can take you, it's no problem really."

I just shook my head and ran out of the room, crying again. He seemed so nice and cute but if my dad knew that I was talking to a boy as cute as Jesse he would be horribly angry, I couldn't have that. I needed to keep my dad happy for my sake, and my mothers.

_A/N: Okay, so this is my first fiction EVER so if it sucks I am sorry. I am open to ideas on what to do with the plotline so Review? Please? Also, for the sake of this fiction Quinn and Jesse are both juniors, so is everybody at McKinley, there will be other differences as the story progresses. (And obviously no baby Beth)_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or any Christina Perri songs**

Jesse P.O.V

What on earth was wrong with me? I can't believe myself! I was actually... Kind to a person. A person that I didn't know!

I guess it may have helped that she was absolutely gorgeous with long blonde hair and intriguing hazel eyes, but still. I am Jesse St. James. Ruthless male lead of the best show choir group in the nation.

Usually I would have handled the situation by asking her what she was doing there, then telling her she kind of needed to leave. I would have of course let her leave out the back door so Vocal Adrenaline wouldn't have ripped into her like a pack of wild dogs, but... She just looked so sad and, broken. Like she was on the verge of giving up.

And those bruises, they looked to fresh to have come from anywhere but McKinley. I mean if her shirt hadn't been still damp from what looked like two of those vile slushy drinks that the McKinley jocks had a habit of throwing on people; then I may consider the possibility that someone had abused her, but the slushy looked to fresh.

It made me absolutely CRAZY that someone would want to hurt her. I mean I barely knew anything about this girl but I just wanted to beat the crap out if the guys that hurt her. She still looked freaked out when I found her. Still, even in that state in which I found her; she was beautiful.

I really hope that she is going to come to Carmel. Then I could see her, and maybe get to know her. Quinn, that was a pretty name but it didn't really seem to fit her. I have no idea what name would but I wouldn't pick that one for her. Not that I didn't like the name Quinn, but it sounded more like a middle name to me.

Anyway if she does come to Carmel I really hope that she can sing. Our female lead graduated last year, and while I was vastly more talented than her, she was a thousand times better than the girls that are still here. Especially Andrea. She is just so annoying. She keeps following me around to try and make me like her so that I will convince Shelby to make her the Female Lead.

Like seriously I know people love me, but that doesn't mean that I love them too.

Actually people tend to bug me; a lot. They are always gossiping or screaming or flirting, and I just get tired if it you know?

"Jesse? Jesse where are you I need to talk to you."

Oh shoot how the heck does she do that? She's like a freaking ninja man! I'll be doing something and then randomly POW! She appears.

"Jesse! It's Shelby; I really really need to talk with you."

"Oh uh Shelby; what did you need to see me about?"

"Well I was curious as to why Vocal Adrenaline was performing that number that we have been working on WITHOUT their lead singer. What the heck is wrong with you Jesse? Seriously you know what happened in the number? Andrea tried to take over their lead. ANDREA."

"Oh that's not good."

"Your right that's not good! The only reason that Andrea is on Vocal Adrenaline is because her dad is the vice principle. Now there's no way he could fire me because I'm way more useful than he is but that's not the point! I had to run in at the end of the song and tell everyone that we were playing a joke on them and that's why we sounded so bad! Jesse; if we keep this up then we won't win Regionals, and certainly not Nationals! Even that joke of a choir The New Directions could have done better. You know why that is Jesse?"

"Because their lead would have been there, but I would have you know Shelby, that I have snuck into many of their rehearsals because I was feeling a bit down and needed a laugh, and they couldn't have pulled that song off better. You know why that is? Because they are all too busy trying to shove their supposed talent down each other's throats that they wouldn't have even practiced it!"

"While that may be true, I don't ever want you to send Andrea into a performance without you. Vocal Adrenaline would have done fine if it hadn't been for her."

"It won't happen again."

"See to it that it doesn't."

* * *

><p><span>Quinn P.O.V<span>

I don't know what to do.

I really want to go to Carmel. But my dad wants me to go to McKinley. I know I am supposed to do what he says. I mean he has told me as much when he gets really mad. He yells that it is in the bible so it must be true.

I am going to try and convince him to let me go to Carmel. I mean if I told him what happened at the other school then he would find a way to make me feel worse about it. Here I go...

"Hey I'm home."

"Let me guess. The cheer coach took one look at you and told you that you were head cheerleader material? And you didn't even go to Carmel because you know that McKinley is the place for you."

That was definitely my father talking.

"Not exactly. I went to both schools and I feel that Carmel is the place for me."

"You want to go to Carmel." My father started walking toward me very slowly; as if he was giving me a chance to explain myself.

"Yes, you see when I was at McKinley a lot of guys were there, they were all extremely interested in the rest of the girls, and knowing what you have taught me about life from the bible is the only man a girl is supposed to love is her father."

"You can ignore boys. You had the chance to be the head cheerleader! You will not get the chance to be great at Carmel."

I am so glad I checked out the Carmel website on my phone before I got home. I was curious about Vocal Adrenaline so I looked them up. Oh who am I kidding I was curious about Jesse. So I guess stalking him online paid off.

"Actually daddy, one of the reasons Carmel looked so good was because their choir group, Vocal Adrenaline is looking for a new female lead. Did I mention they are the best show choir group in the nation?" I told my father when he started to open his mouth.

"Well Quinnie, I guess you are going to Carmel, but if you don't make the group I am going to get you into McKinley even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming."

I shuddered because I knew he would. I went upstairs to look for a song to sing for my audition

* * *

><p><span>First Day of School<span>

Well it's been about a week since I told my father that I wanted to go to Carmel and here I am. The auditions for female lead start at 5:00 in the morning, so I had to go to bed pretty early last night.

I arrived at auditions at 4:45 and joined the lineup. For so early in the morning the line was surprisingly long. I was going over my song that I had chosen on my head when the door to the auditorium opened.

A beautiful older woman stepped out; she looked about my mother's age. Unlike my mother however, she exuded an air of authority and looked cold and calculating.

She walked down the line and told various people to leave. Not explanation, no nothing. Just told them to leave. She looked at me for a minute and said,

"I sure hope you can sing."

She then walked back into the auditorium and told us all to enter. There was a group of people already in there; I assumed it was Vocal Adrenaline, watching to see who their next female lead may be.

The woman who I later found out was named Shelby started calling out names.

"Amanda"

"Nicole"

"Carly"

And so on. All of these girls performed, I thought they all sounded pretty, they had nice voices and some of them had planned out elaborate dance routines. But they seemed like they didn't get it. They were singing to try and impress Shelby; not because they loved singing.

Shelby and Vocal Adrenaline ripped into those girls; they were not impressed at all. Some of the girls ran out crying.

Every time I felt myself getting nervous I reminded myself that I loved to sing and that my song fit me perfectly.

I stepped up to the mike and said,

"Hello, my name is Quinn Fabray and I will be singing The Lonely by Christina Perri.

"Okay Quinn go ahead."

_2 am where do I begin?_

I flashed back to early this morning where I woke up to the sound of my father choking my mother. I felt horrible and I knew that I needed to go help her.

I kept singing and reached the part of the song that I felt described me perfectly.

_I'm a ghost of a girl_

_That I want to be most_

_I'm a shell of a girl_

_That I used to know well_

I kept on singing I sang and thought about how I was trying to be this girl that my father would like better, that wasn't fat and ugly that was better.

_Too afraid to go inside_

_For the pain of one more loveless night_

_Dancing slowly in an empty room_

_I sing myself a quiet lullaby_

_And then you go and let the lonely in_

I was so lonely all the time. I just wanted someone to love me. Someone to have and to hold.

_Broken pieces of_

_A barely breathing story_

_Where there once was love_

_Now there's only me. _

My parents used to love each other, when Frannie was around. Now they don't like each other very much, at least, my dad doesn't.

Before I knew it the song was over. I looked up to where Shelby was sitting.

"Quinn, that was very... Emotional shall I say." Shelby said.

I was nervous I didn't know if she liked emotional. All of the other performances had been all complicated and upbeat. I hadn't added any dance moves to mine.

"May I ask why you didn't dance or do anything besides sing?"

"Oh, of course! I didn't dance because-" I began

"Because you're so stupid and ugly with a horrible voice that you knew that you would kill your chances of being the female lead!" A random girl from Vocal Adrenaline said.

With a start I realized she was sitting right next to Jesse. I had avoided looking at the Vocal Adrenaline team because I knew that seeing him again would make me even more nervous. I had looked up videos of him singing, and boy was he fantastic.

"Andrea I would appreciate that you would not butt in on my questions! You have absolutely no right to do so!"

"As future female lead of this group my power will be second only to yours, so I am practicing giving feedback."

"Andrea I told you that you could audition for the female lead after we tried out everyone else. And I said you wouldn't get a chance if we found someone better so just shut up!"

Wow, that Shelby was scary when she was mad. Andrea's comments had stung. Who was she to judge me?

"Oh, and Andrea," a beautiful male voice interjected, "Even if you by some fluke of nature somehow became female lead, you would not be 'second in command'. I am the male lead, I hold all the songs. The female lead is only to compliment MY voice. What's more, is not only am I the male lead I am also the leader of this entire show choir. You will never be that powerful Andrea. Not even in your dreams. Now back to the point I wanted to hear why Quinn didn't dance."

"Thank you Jesse." Shelby replied, "Quinn I'm so sorry about that. Now why didn't you dance?"

I was amazed. That girl was just so horrible. But Jesse and Shelby really put her in her place. And did Jesse kind of defend me? Oh well I should really answer their question now.

"I didn't dance because this wasn't a competition like sectionals and regionals. In those type if events you need to pull out all of your stops, even if you don't need to, to win.

Don't get me wrong this is also super important, but for this I needed you to see me. How I feel and what I can bring to the table. Nothing was important besides me and the song. And besides when you are on a stage all by yourself, frankly it looks ridiculous to dance; unless of course it's a song that needs it. This song did not."

"Well Quinn," Shelby stated, "Come after school during practice, I want to talk with you."

"Okay I'll see you then." I smiled at her.

Okay one scary thing down, one to go. How do I find my first class?

_A/N: _Okay! Thatwas Chapter 2! (Obviously!) The song that Quinn sang was The Lonely by Christina Perri. I don't know if you guys like having the enitre song in the chapter. If you do say so now or forever hold your peace. I cut out a lot of lyric, so that I could move the story along. The stuff I kept I thought represented where Quinn was in the story. The rest of the song I felt would be more likely to be relevant if Quinn and Jesse broke up (which is a stretch because they have only talked once!). Okay so, if there are any song requests I will gladly take them!


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, I've got this. Yeah I totally do; I mean how hard is it to find Ms. Walter's room is? I mean just because I don't have a map, there are no indicators to figure out what floor her room is on, and none of the teachers have their names or any form of number on their door that corresponds with their name on my schedule doesn't mean I don't have this.

Seriously, I just auditioned to be the female lead of Vocal Adrenaline. I was the only girl that the entire team didn't practically throw stones at.

I got this.

Uh oh. Was that the warning bell?

I turned a corner and dove into an empty classroom. That was close. I was practically flattened by the sea of students that were running toward the corner that I had just turned.

Now all I have to do is find Ms. Walters room; I feel like throwing something. This is so frustrating! Someone tapped my shoulder and I jumped around prepared to punch them in the face. I had been working on my punching skills ever since I went to McKinley, I never ever wanted that to happen again.

I turned around to see the person that I was about to punch.

"Jesse?"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing in here? What class is this? Why is this school so confusing and where the heck is Ms. Walters's room?"

"This is my class, the school likes to confuse people, and this is Ms. Walters's room."

"Wait. Hold up a second. I found Ms. Walters room? Finally? I've been looking for it for about 15 minutes! Wait this is your class too?"

"Yeah Quinn, you found her room! Good job. And yes this is the class I'm in too, do you have a problem with that?" Jesse sneered at me.

"Wh-what? No of course not! I was surprised! I didn't think anyone that I would know would be in my classes so I would be all alone and a loser. Just like last time..." I mumbled under my breath at the last part.

His eyes softened at my confused expression and seemed apologetic. "Okay, sorry for snapping. It's been a long morning what with Andrea, what the heck happened to her? Also as you know the auditions for Female Lead," he sighed "I have not had a particularly relaxing morning. Wait? You said you were afraid you wouldn't know anyone in your classes, who else do you know that goes here?"

"Well, you are the only person that I know here so that's why I thought I would be all alone but I'm sooo happy you are in this class too!" I gushed at him.

"Okay that makes sense then. Come sit by me we get to choose our seats."

I complied and then I looked around the classroom and saw a big square room with blue walls and about 20 other desks. I looked up and saw he teacher sitting at her desk, but she was absentmindedly reading a book so I could not see her face. I looked back over at Jesse and saw he was reading my schedule; I must have put it down on my desk when I was looking around.

"So any more classes together?" I asked hopefully.

"Yes, two more; we have 4th and 6th period together, in addition to this class," he smiled at my crestfallen face, "Look, this is actually pretty good. I've never had this many classes with someone before."

A random boy interrupted and said, "We have had every class together since Kindergarden."

"Who are you?" Jesse asked sounding annoyed.

"Uh never mind." The boy looked away hurriedly.

"Well anyway," Jesse continued ignoring the interruption, "since we have 4th period together we will also have lunch together."

"Oh thank goodness! I was so afraid that I was going to have to each lunch in the library! If I could find it that is..." I mumbled as a looked at the getting more and more perfect by the minuet Jesse St. James.

"What? Of course not! You will from this day forth be my partner in all of our classes together and you shall henceforth swear to eat lunch with me every day from this point on. Discluding weekends that is."

I giggled at his theatrics. He raised his eyebrows in a mock disbelieving way.

"Since the Miss Fabray thinks that I am kidding I will make a contract right here and right now binding us both to our promises. For us both to be each other's partners, for you to eat lunch with me, and I have decided that I will escort you to all of your classes as long as you need me to."

As he was proclaiming all of this loudly enough for the entire class to hear, I noticed with a start that when we had been talking the entire class had filled up. I looked around and noticed that half of the girls were looking at Jesse with a day dreamy expression in their faces and the other half were glaring daggers at me.

"It is done!" Jesse practically screamed to the classroom.

I was dumbfounded. Not only had Jesse just screamed about finishing writing a contract, while being perfectly in tune may I add, he had already signed it and was handing me the pen.

"Quinn," Jesse whispered softly, "I also added something else that want you to know about. Even though we haven't known each other for very long, I feel like you are someone that is a one in a million. You are genuine, sweet, a little spacy, sad person that I want to help because I like you Quinn. I really really do."

At this point nobody in the room could hear us and the teacher was introducing herself to us and said that she was going to give out our reading list soon, seeing as how we were in an English class. I looked at Jesse. My eyes were watering, I had no idea that he thought so highly of me. Of ME! Lucy Caboosey.

"Thank you." I said quietly.

He just smiled at me and handed me our contract. "Sign it!" he mouthed at me. I smiled to myself and signed Miss Fabray, seeing as how Quinn wasn't my real name and I wanted to keep this contract as realistic as possible.

He took the paper back from me and smiled. Oh god did he look hot when he smiled. I could barely form a coherent thought. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. He ran his fingers through his hair and I felt the sudden urge to touch it. To see if it was soft or stiff because it looked like he used gel in it.

"And that concludes what we are going to be doing for the rest of the year. You can have the next half hour to do whatever you want so I can get started planning out your assignments for next week." Mrs. Walters was apparently done taking now.

Wow. That meant that I had spent like a half hour staring at Jesse and I didn't even realize time was passing? I must really like him! No. Wait, I can't like Jesse, not now not ever. If my dad found out that I was even looking at an attractive boy, I shudder to think of what would happen. To me and him. My dad would kill me; no joke.

"Hey Quinn, I was wondering how you are getting home today." Jesse was looking at me expectantly.

"Oh, well I have that meeting with the Coach after school, so I'm going to miss the bus... I guess I am walking home then."

Jesse snorted. "Yeah, like I'm going to let someone that looks like you walk home. Don't you live in-between Carmel and McKinley? There could be some of those McKinley miscreants walking around and they could attack you!"

I visibly blanched, I hadn't thought of that. "Well, depending on his late I am going to be talking to Coach then I guess I'll have to wait until my dad gets off work."

"Nope." Jesse said, popping the p. "You Miss Fabray are getting a ride home with Jesse St. James."

"Uh I don't know Jesse my dad might not like that very much... I can just wait it's not a big deal." Oh man did I want Jesse to dive me home. But I know that I can't risk my dad seeing.

"I insist." Jesse said in a tone of voice that made me know I was going to lose the argument.

"Okay..." I sighed in defeat.

The bell rang just then. I started freaking out, maybe I had made Jesse mad at me and he wouldn't show me to my next class and the. I would be late and get in trouble and then my parents would find out...

"Quinn, why are you still sitting there? I can't take you to your next class if you won't stand up. Unless you want me to carry you of course..."

I stood up quickly and he laughed at me. He then took me to my next class which was Science with Mr. Phillip. He made sure I was situated in my seat and then walked off to his next class after giving me a big grin.

"Oh look how cute is this. Little Quinnie Fabray all by herself. Guess there's no big bad male lead to protect you now." I looked up into the sneering face of Andrea Cohen.

"Why?" I asked. I was actually curious. Why did she hate me so much? She looked like she was a nice person, but she kept acting like she was better than everybody else.

"What?" She snapped at me.

"Why do you hate me? The only people that yelled at you were the Coach and Jesse which makes me think that the other members like you. This means you're not usually an unkind person. I also saw some videos that you have sung in and you are in no way, shape, or form bad, so what happened to make Jesse so disgusted with your vocals?"

She looked at me, dumbfounded. People usually didn't expect it but I was an extremely perceptive person.

"You don't hate me?"

"Why should I? If you wanted to be the Female Lead I can understand how you wouldn't like me, but that is no answer to what happened to your vocals." I waited for her to answer.

"You really think I was good? Like if it came down to the wire I could maybe take over a lead and do an okay job?" She was looking at me and she looked very venerable.

"Yeah of course. Everybody on Vocal Adrenaline is fantastic. That included you. What happened?"

"You promise not to tell anyone? Like I'll tell you why, but it can't do much for how I'm acting. I have to do this not matter what."

Do this? What was she talking about? I would have asked but I knew if she was planning on telling me something she will only do it once, so I really don't want to bug her.

"We actually had someone on the team to take over Female Lead after our old one graduated."

I was surprised; I thought that the reason that the Coach was having auditions was because they didn't have a suitable Female Lead.

"Her name is Giselle. The reason she wasn't there for auditions was because Shelby is mad at her. And she had Mono but that's not really a big deal. I wish it was though." She added the last part to herself, "I hope her voice never recovers."

I looked at her, surprised. She really seemed to dislike this girl she spoke of.

"Well what happened was that Giselle went on a huge vacation over the summer, which is totally fine, but she didn't tell Shelby when she was leaving or coming back. Shelby was super pissed and told Giselle that she didn't care enough about Vocal Adrenaline to be a Female Lead, we have everyday eight hour rehearsal. She then told Giselle that she was going to hold open auditions for the spot. Giselle was furious, but she couldn't do anything because Shelby is the coach.

"Okay, so I have a feeling that this started your attitude decline?" I said, even though I knew the question didn't make any sense I just wanted her to know that I was still listening.

"Well kind of." Andrea said. "What you need to know is that Giselle is an evil, manipulating, rotten person. She was angry because she knew that Shelby would find someone to become the new Female Lead and that the new lead would be better than her. But she also knew that if everyone else liked the new lead and nobody thought that it should be them, Shelby would kick her off the team completely.

"Okay, but I don't see where you factor into this."

"She knew that since everyone liked me; if I didn't like you and could get them to doubt you, Shelby would want Giselle to be the Female Lead."

I looked at Andrea. I felt really bad for her; it looked like she wasn't telling me something though.

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Sh-she blackmailed me into doing it. She also told me that since she was so grateful that I was helping her that she was going to give me some vocal lessons so that I could be the backup lead. I guess according to you and the horrified looks on some of the members of the team, she's been ruining my vocals."

"She was blackmailing you?"

"Yes... It's nothing bad though, it wouldn't even affect my social standing at the school, but it would affect my singing and dancing opportunities. Like I've already told my family and she has told hers. But it wouldn't be something that Shelby would like. She wouldn't be disappointed or anything but it could affect how the Judges see the Vocal Adrenaline performance."

"If you don't want to tell me that's totally okay, just letting you know that no matter what I won't judge you." I looked at her, she was so pretty. She was skinny with caramel coloured skin and long dark brown hair. Why would anyone want to blackmail her?

"Well, okay since it looks like you will be the Female Lead I guess that you should know. I'm in love with Shoshandra. She is another member of Vocal Adrenaline."

I was cursing myself internally. I had to make sure that my dad never met either of them. Or else it could get physical. I really liked Andrea now though. Everything made perfect sense. She knew Shelby wouldn't kick either of them off of the team because she wasn't a horrible person, but she would lessen their vocal and dancing time because what if at a competition what if one of the judges was a homophobe? Then Shelby would be forced to take them out for the fact that one of the other teams would tell the judges that they had to girls that were in love with each other on the team.

"I understand. But think about it. If I do get the Female Lead and Giselle comes back and the spot isn't wide open for her, she is going to take her rage out on you. You and Shoshandra. I think Shelby would be more impressed if you told her straight up."

"... I guess; I just need to talk to Shoshandra about it first, because she might not want Shelby to know yet."

"Andrea, if that was the case then Giselle would have been blackmailing Shoshandra not you."

The bell rang out loudly at that moment. I sighed and stood up, according to my class list I now had my health class with Ms. Franklin. I waked out of the classroom to try and find Jesse in the hall.

I looked to my left and saw with surprise that Andrea was still next to me. Before I could say anything though Jesse appeared from the crowd.

"Andrea," he sneered at her "why don't you just go an-..." he was cut off by Andrea squeezing him in a huge bear hug and whispering something in his ear. He smiled at her and said "Go get her."

Andrea smiled at him and took of sprinting down the halls screaming "SHOSHANDRA!"

I looked at Jesse. "What?" he asked, "Have you never seen a random girl go running down the halls of a high school? It happens all the time here. Especially with Vocal Adrenalines tendency to overdramatize things."

I snorted and really hoped he was kidding, getting mowed over by a bunch of crazed classmates doesn't sound like fun. The something occurred to me. "Jesse, all the time that I was talking to Andrea in science she kept referring to me as 'probably the new Female Lead' do you think that she was just saying it or do you think that I really will be?"

"Okay, Quinn do you want my honest opinion here? Because when it comes to singing I can and will be brutal."

"I want the honest truth and what I can do to improve."

"I think you will be. But, it will be trial and error. You will sound good complimenting my voice but," he said looking at me and his eyes were warning me not to interrupt. "You are not the best singer that I have ever heard. There is a rival show choir called The New Directions and they are a joke because they have a lot of inner choir fighting, but their Female Lead is phenomenal. That could be a problem for us so Shelby probably won't let you have a lead at Sectionals to get more preparation for Regionals. But I will help you every day at any time you want to help you get better. And if you can dance you'll be golden."

"I can do ballet, and I'll do anything that I can to be the Lead. If I don't my parents will send me to McKinley so I can be the Head Cheerleader."

"They would do that even after what happened to you there?" Jesse sounded furious.

I blanched, how did he know what happened there? I thought I was careful! But I guess that I was a crying mess afterwords, who knows what I may have let slip.

"I mean they threw a slushy on you for god's sake!"

I breathed a sigh in relief. So he didn't know; my secret was still safe. Third period passed in a blur, before I knew it Jesse and I were sitting down in our Math class. I once again, spent the entire period staring at him.

"Come on time for lunch Quincy!"

"Excuse me? Quincy?"

"Yep! I have been trying to come up with a nickname for you for the past two periods!"

"Quincy. You got Quincy."

"Well, Quinn is a pretty hard name to come up with a nickname for. I also have Queen Q, Q, Quinnie Bear, Quincy..."

"Hmmm... So far I like Quinnie Bear and Queen Q the best. But how about you keep thinking and we can go to lunch."

"Fine! I will come up with a good nickname you mark my words!"

* * *

><p>Okay time for fifth period. Lunch with Jesse was really fun; I think I will enjoy lunch from now on.<p>

I said goodbye to Jesse as I walked into the auditorium, the same place where I auditioned to be the Female Lead of Vocal Adrenaline.

"As you might know the Theater is a very important part of Society and this class will not be a simple cakewalk. We will be having a performance in November. The scripts are here, labeled with your names. We will also be combining the performance with my Advanced Drama class. The male lead of course will be Jesse St. James from the advanced class, but one of you lucky ladies will be the Female Lead, which in this play will be featured more heavily. Four of you don't have scripts. This is because I am observing you four to be the Female Lead based on what you show me in the next week." The teacher was none other than Shelby Corcoran.

"What's the play?" one if the few boys in the class asked.

"Sleeping Beauty."

"That's a movie not a play!" the boy protested, "How is the even possible to be a play?"

"Are you insinuating that I don't know what I'm doing? Because I can assure you Mr. Johnson that I do."

The boy paled and walked up to get his script. I guess nobody wants to mess with Shelby.

I was really excited. I loved Sleeping Beauty; she was always my favourite Disney Princess. A thought occurred to me and I raised my hand.

"Yes Miss Fabray?"

"If there are four girls being looked at for the Female Lead, then what are the three that end up not making it going to be?"

"What an excellent question! The other three girls with the three fairies in the play."

I nodded, that made perfect sense. I walked up to get my script and saw that mine wasn't there. I looked over at Shelby and she motioned for me to come over to her.

"Okay everyone that has scripts go practice either with yourself or with each other, the four of you that don't have scripts come over here."

I looked over at the class, there were only ten people, I wondered how many people were in the Advanced Class. Probably not that many, I didn't know how many parts would be available, but then again I didn't really know a lot about plays.

"Okay, here are the scripts for Aurora and the three fairies. I expect you to learn them; I will be trying you out for the part of Aurora on Friday. Now go, rehearse, Quinn I need to speak with you."

The other girls glared at me resentfully. They probably thought that I was going to suck up or that I was a favourite. Truth to be told, I was really scared of her, I just wanted to know if I was going to make the female lead of Vocal Adrenaline.

"When you auditioned this morning I didn't realize that I had you in my beginning drama class."

"I didn't know you were the teacher either Ms...?"

"You can call me Shelby. All members of Vocal Adrenaline do. Especially the leads."

"Wait, really? I made it? That's fantastic! I promise I will work really hard to be a good singer and help with Regionals, and I'm just so excited!" I was practically jumping up and down.

Shelby was looking at me amusedly. "That is good to know Quinn; I need to know that you will try hard to get better. Because, your voice is very pretty, but I need you to get some power in it. The way you access emotion though, that is exactly what we need this year. We need something new, something they didn't think that we were capable of, just like last year when we won Nationals with the routine when the kids danced on their hands..."

"Oh wow! I do have a question though. For Sectionals when are we going to find out the song? I mean I know it's a long way away but... I just really want to do all that I can."

"There is no such thing as too early. I will be revealing the song during practice after school, you can dance though right?" Shelby looked at me hopefully.

"Yes, though I'm best at ballet and ballroom dancing. I am also pretty good at gymnastics." I listed off proudly.

"Fantastic! This fits perfectly with my Sectionals plan. You will be a heavily featured dancer." She was practically glowing with excitement.

The bell rang then it was time for History with Mr. Armstongovitch, weird name right? I think he's Russian.

History was fun; the teacher was fun, if not a little crazy. Jesse and I were walking back to the drama room for my first practice with Vocal Adrenaline.

"Okay first order of business is Sectionals and Regionals." Shelby's voice echoed around the stage as soon as Jesse and I walked up.

"We will not take too long today. All I am doing is talking strategy today, but tomorrow will be brutal."

I shuddered, but at least I won't have to go running anymore. By the sounds of this, Vocal Adrenaline will burn all my calories for me.

"As you all probably figured out, Quinn will be our new Female Lead. She is eager to work hard and improve; I am expecting all of you to help her if she needs it. Now, to the business of Sectionals. As was predicted Quinn will not be singing a solo, the song will be all Jesse singing. However, there will be a different style of dancing in it. We will be telling a story with the song, Jesse, I know you are capable so show me. Show me the emotion that you can channel in a song."

I was deeply impressed with Shelby's speech. She seemed like she was going to be a fantastic coach.

"What song am I singing?" that was Jesse asking, wow, he looked so hot in the lights from the stage.

"You will be singing the Train song Drops of Jupiter."

Jesse nodded and looked pleased. I had heard that song before, it was really pretty. I always imagined the guy singing it to a girl that he was hopelessly in love with. But in the scenario it seemed that Jesse was the singer and I was the serenadee.

"Okay, girls bring long skirts tomorrow for rehearsals. We will start practicing tomorrow. Onto Regionals! This year I happened to sneak a peek at the possible teams that we will be up against. For some reason The New Directions is not a team we will be facing until Nationals if they make it, as you know, they were supposed to be our competition at Regionals last year but they had to drop out due to the fact that they didn't have enough members, something about Cheerleaders quitting because there was no reason for them to be there."

A couple of the Vocal Adrenaline members snorted and said 'what a joke' very quietly to themselves.

"On a similar note, our Invitational that will be happening in three weeks is not one that Quinn will be participating in. All of you know that our competition that gives us the most trouble always comes to the Invitational and watches us and builds there entire seasons performance on our showcasing at the Invitational and Sectionals, so Quinn, you are our secret weapon. Have a nice day. And Andrea? You said you wanted to talk to me?"

* * *

><p>"Come on Quinn, I'll drive you home now" Jesse smiled at me.<p>

The car ride to my house was nice; we just talked about random things and hammered out a schedule for him helping me practice singing. Before I knew it, we were at my house, I looked at Jesse and something about his expression made my words get all caught in my throat.

"Goodbye Quinn," he said softly, "I will see you tomorrow."

He leaned in really close and for a second I thought that he was about to kiss me, I really really wanted him to. At the last second he sat straight up though. I was surprised at how disappointed I was, I really wanted that kiss. It would have been my fist kiss.

I said goodbye though and walked into my house, it smelled like alcohol.

"So you little whore, who was that that you were so close to in the car?" I gulped and looked into the bloodshot evil eyes of my father.

**_A/N _**Dun dun duuuunnn! I am so so sorry for the amount of time it took me to update! I got really lazy and I have none of the chapters pre written, it is just when I feel like it! I promise I will get better though! Please review! Any and all song suggestions are welcome :)


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